According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, the United States has the highest prison population per capita in the world. In 2009, for example, 1 out of every 135 U.S. residents was incarcerated. Generally, inmates convicted of felony offenses serve long sentences in prison (e.g., federal or state prisons), whereas those convicted of misdemeanors receive shorter sentences to be served in jail (e.g., county jail). In either case, while awaiting trial, a suspect or accused may remain incarcerated. During his or her incarceration, an inmate may have opportunities to communicate with the outside world.
By allowing prisoners to have some contact with friends and family while incarcerated, the justice system aims to facilitate their transition back into society upon release. Traditional forms of contact include telephone calls, in-person visitation, conjugal visits, etc. More recently, technological advances have allowed jails and prisons to provide other types of communication, including individual-to-individual video conferences and online chat sessions.
Traditional communication services provided to residents of controlled-environment facilities (such as correctional facilities) may include allowing residents (inmates) to place outbound phone calls to non-residents. Additionally, non-residents can typically schedule video visitation with residents (inmates) of the controlled-environment facility. Other types of communication available to controlled-environment residents include the ability to exchange email and prerecorded text messages between residents and non-residents of the controlled-environment facility.
To enable these various types of communications, a jail or prison may install communication devices in different parts of the facility. Such communication devices are dedicated to provide inmate contact with the outside world. These devices are located in different areas throughout the facility. Traditionally, controlled-environment facility communication vendors have provided services that allow residents of a controlled-environment facility to initiate phone calls. This is typically referred to as an inmate outbound call. Alternatively, non-residents of a controlled-environment facility can pay for a scheduled video visitation event to occur where both the resident and the non-resident log into a video visitation application at the scheduled time to have a video conversation.
Typically residents of controlled-environment facilities, particularly controlled-environment facilities such as correctional institutions, are not allowed access to streaming content. Similarly, unrestricted or untethered access to wireless data communication systems is not typically allowed, such as for security reasons. That is to say, typically, there are security concerns in a controlled-environment facility that result in a need for tightly controlled media. Regardless, the cost of streamed or downloaded data, particularly in the form of media files, data plan limits, and/or the cost of bandwidth to download or stream such files, may be a concern. Moreover, the layout of a controlled-environment facility, such as the use or radiating pods in modern correctional facilities, and/or the structure of the facility itself, such as the use of steel and/or steel-reinforced concrete in correctional facilitates, make the propagation of a wireless signal for streaming, or even downloading, difficult and/or unpredictable.